I leave you here with a few aspects of the exhibition without comments, as i’ve written already extensively about the show in VLR; and, of course, with the strong recommendation to go and see the show for yourself.
Although the reasons for its closure are understandable, the fact itself is disturbing as it is not the first high quality art gallery in The Hague that ceases to exist. During the last few years Twelve Twelve Gallery, A Gallery Named Sue and Galerie Nouvelles Images also stopped, which is quite a loss for the extremely important diversity of what this city has on offer artistically.
Peter Feiler
Of course i wish all the former gallerists the best and i still hope to see more of the works by the artists they represented but the artistic impoverishment is quite saddening. As for Hoorn & Reniers: it represented quite young artists, especially painters both Dutch and from the German speaking countries, which was an enormous enrichment of the international scope of The Hague.
Peter Feiler
What remains is to be very grateful for what the gentlemen presented in their gallery.
Maja Pop Trajkova; in the background Katarina Juricic
Thirteen artists who graduated this year from different departments of the Royal Academy in The Hague (KABK) are exhibiting their work at Haagse Kunstkring (HKK).
Katarina JuricicKatarina Juricic
They were free to make their own exhibition co-operatively and (as it looks like) in full respect for each other’s work.
Katarina JuricicFilippo Maria CirianiFilippo Maria Ciriani
It has become a well staged, even quite coherent show.
Filippo Maria CirianiStella Hyunji Kim
That in itself is quite surprising considering the very personal content of some the works.
The works on show vary from the relatively simple intervention by Maja Pop Trajkova, which creates, amongst others, a special space for Katarina Juričić’s work, to the sophisticated machinery by Louis Braddock Clarke of which, admittedly, i personally understand not even half, but which gives listening to the world quite another dimension.
Sophia WesterSophia Wester
Two artists are as lucky as to have a single space for their own.
Sophia WesterPien KarsPien Kars
Catherine Ostraya has the rarely used attic to show her performance (as i was a bit early only a countdown for the action was on show) and Linhuei Chen has the gallery’s kitchen and part of the staircase where she gives a compelling account of the constantly changing position of an artist and a mother raising a family in a foreign country.
Pien KarsErik van Schaften
Technically speaking the back space of the gallery is probably the most challenging as it contains more or less monumental and very different works by four artists.
Erik van SchaftenErik van SchaftenSuzette Bousema
There are the stereoscopic encounters with nature by Sophia Wester, the colourful altars for the feminine by Pien Kars, the omnipresence of the giant hogweed by Erik van Schaften and the cyanotypes (a technique which seems to gain popularity again amongst artists) of plastic waste from the sea by Suzette Bousema.
Suzette BousemaLinhuei Chen
Of course all four works have something to do with nature and archaeology but still the results are quite distinct.
Linhuei ChenLinhuei ChenLouis Braddock Clarke
The combination is however quite successful.
Louis Braddock ClarkeLouis Braddock Clarke
One could even claim the works by both Filippo Maria Ciriani and Stella Hyunji Kim are about archaeology, the first photographing the small mining town of Kelmis in German speaking eastern Belgium (just south of Dutch Vaals) and its surroundings, a mining place where they are prospecting again for riches, and the latter looking for what seemingly destructive burning can in fact recreate out of what we once owned.
Huaxin ZhangHuaxin ZhangHuaxin Zhang
Both Huaxin Zhang and Moe Kim are trying to create a new kind of authenticity, Zhang extracting a kind of softness from local carpentry in textile, and Moe Kim in a more individual way with her familiarity with artificial light of the high tech world she is used to, processed in textile.
Moe KimMoe Kim
I didn’t visit the show with the intention to make a report about it, but the young artists made such a wonderful effort that i couldn’t resist showing you some aspects; if you want to see the real thing however, you have to hurry, as next Sunday is the last day of the show (it was opened yesterday).
Surely it is a cliché to say life is a mystery and that we don’t live long enough to solve it.
However, assuming that life is indeed a mystery, the most mysterious part of it is undoubtedly us, the human race itself.
We imagine ourselves to be free, but in the mean time we have our rituals and our ways of thinking to try and guarantee us that freedom, while at the same time we are caught by time, space and life itself and all its limitations.
Dirk Zoete (1969), who presently shows his work at Galerie Maurits van de Laar, shows the human being in its restricted life, as it puts on a mask of culture and character, as if to mislead anything that could have power over it, including other human beings.
Imagine you enter the gallery and they are silently trying to defuse you.
How would you react?
I’d strongly give you the advise to give it a try and to see how much you have in common with them!
Façade of a building with a shop and apartments, Wagenstraat, probably built in the 1920s.
Until 2017 here was the locally famous authentic pastry shop Gordijn (these pictures are from 2017).
Like many shopkeepers near the city centre they had to close down their business because of too strong competition of supermarkets and department stores amongst others.
Before and during the beginning of WWII the building contained Bak’s lunchroom. The Baks were Jewish.
During the German occupation they went into hiding in the village of Pijnacker, not far from The Hague, but were betrayed and were murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.
At the moment the building is being refurbished as you can see in the last picture which was taken recently.
Left to right: Yumiko Yoneda, Pat Andrea, Michel HoogervorstPat AndreaWarffemius; Bob Bonies in the background
Some artists of the gallery were invited to make a temporary monumental work on the walls.
Hieke LuikBob BoniesIen Lucas
Near the windows Bob Bonies (1937) made an apparently simple, but in fact quite sophisticated work, while Ien Lucas (1955) made such an unobtrusive work on the opposite wall, that one would almost think it is a common feature of the gallery.
In the conservatory Yumiko Yoneda (1965) has made an installation of her sensitive drop-like sculptures which now slowly change with the changing of the daylight.
Cor van DijkCor van DijkPat Andrea
In between all this monumentality there are some smaller works by other artists of the gallery on show.
Mat van der HeijdenMat van der HeijdenJoncquil
It is not a minor achievement to run a successful gallery for 25 years, and the general mood of the exhibition is warm and festive.
JoncquilJoncquilLeft to right: Joncquil, Pat Andrea, Yumiko Yoneda, Warffemius
It also goes to show how important the bond between a gallery-keeper, the artists and the gallery’s visitors and customers is.
Pat Andrea; in the background Yumiko YonedaPat AndreaMichel Hoogervorst
Of course it is business, but it is very much a business of love.
Michel HoogervorstMichel HoogervorstYumiko Yoneda
It is very much the enthusiastic and informal personality of Catalijn Ramakers and her aesthetic choices that has made this brilliant artistic party possible.
Yumiko YonedaYumiko YonedaMichel Hoogervorst
In fact this party of love and dedication has been going on already for many years and by all means i wish her a prolongation of many years to come.
It is however quite clear that she is ready for such a presentation.
Her more or less abstract sculptures are seemingly free floating in the air.
The whole composition may remind you of objects floating in the sea, subject to the tidal forces.
In fact the sculptures are based on objects Sebestikova found on nearby Scheveningen Beach.
The way she abstracts her subjects looks very much like how natural forces – water, wind, sand – reshape, crush, polish or re-polish objects.
As a visitor you can walk over the carpeted floor, which gives the installation a warm and inviting atmosphere, with muted acoustics.
No half work has been delivered by Sebestikova.
Courageously she has used the whole space of the museum’s so-called Cabinet space (it looks more like a neo-Medieval chapel) making its columns part of the composition.
As i’ve written quite extensively about it in VLR, i leave you here with some pictures of details and the strong recommendation to go and take a look for yourself.
